1. Enhancing the mental representations of space used by blind pedestrians, based on an image schemata model
- Author
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Reda Yaagoubi, Geoffrey Edwards, Thierry Badard, and Mir Abolfazl Mostafavi
- Subjects
Male ,Computer science ,Cognitive Neuroscience ,Spatial Behavior ,Poison control ,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology ,Walking ,Space (commercial competition) ,Blindness ,Semantics ,Artificial Intelligence ,Human–computer interaction ,Orientation ,Humans ,Computer vision ,Spatial analysis ,Structure (mathematical logic) ,Orientation (computer vision) ,business.industry ,Schematic ,General Medicine ,Models, Theoretical ,Space Perception ,Imagination ,Mental representation ,Female ,Artificial intelligence ,business - Abstract
The configuration of mental representation of space plays a major role in successful navigational activities. Therefore, navigational assistance for pedestrians who are blind should help them to better configure their mental representation of the environment. In this paper, we propose and exploit a computational model for the mental representation of urban areas as an aid to orientation and navigation for visually impaired pedestrians. Our model uses image schemata to capture the spatial semantics and configural elements of urban space necessary for this purpose. These image schemata are schematic structures that are continually requested by individuals in their perception, bodily movement and interaction with surrounding objects. Our proposed model also incorporates a hierarchical structure to provide different levels of detail tied to appropriate spatial perspectives at each scale. We presume that such computational model will help us to develop an appropriate structure of spatial data used to assist the target population. At the end of the paper, we illustrate the utility of our configural model by developing a typical scenario for the navigation of a blind pedestrian in an urban area.
- Published
- 2012